The dawn that broke over the Ye Estate was unlike any other in its history. The air was no longer thick with the suffocating sweetness of Aurora's presence; instead, it felt sharp, cold, and frighteningly clear. While the city slept, the "Lethal God" had been at work. Ye Wanwan sat in the high-backed leather chair of the central study, the very seat her father usually occupied. The room was illuminated only by the blue glow of several holographic monitors displaying the Ye Group's global assets, security feeds, and a list of internal collaborators that Aurora had left behind. Her fingers moved across the interface with the speed of a high-level hacker, her obsidian eyes reflecting lines of code as she purged the "rats" from the corporate system.
She was so engrossed in the digital slaughter that she didn't hear the heavy doors open. She didn't have to. A sudden, familiar surge of heat announced his arrival before his shadow even hit the desk. Lu Zhentian walked in, carrying two cups of steaming black coffee. He wasn't wearing a suit today; he wore a black tactical turtleneck that accentuated the raw power of his frame. He looked less like a CEO and more like a commander returning from a purge.
"You've been awake for forty-eight hours, Wanwan," Zhentian said, his voice a low, possessive rumble. He placed one cup in front of her and moved behind her chair, his large, warm hands settling on her shoulders. The heat from his palms seeped through her shirt, instantly melting the frost that had begun to form in her joints. "The Ye Group is stable. The Wei Syndicate's stocks have already plummeted thirty percent since I leaked the 'unauthorized bomb' footage. You can stop playing the guardian for one hour."
Wanwan leaned her head back, her eyes closing as his warmth hit her like a drug. "I'm not playing, Zhentian. My parents are in a state of collapse. My brothers are currently in the interrogation room trying to make sense of a decade of lies. If I don't hold the line, this family falls."
"They aren't going to fall," Zhentian whispered, his thumbs beginning to massage the tension in her neck with a shameless, expert precision. "Because I've moved my entire administrative team into the guest wing. And since your 'Cold-Blood' symptoms are peaking due to the stress, I've decided to set up my personal workstation right here. In your office. Or your bedroom. I haven't decided which is more efficient for my 'monitoring' duties yet."
Wanwan's eyes snapped open. She twisted in the chair to look up at him, her face a mask of cold indignation. "You've done what? Master Lu, this is a family crisis, not a co-working space. You have your own empire to run!"
"I'm running it," Zhentian replied with a dark, arrogant grin. He gestured to the corner of the study where two of his elite secretaries were already quietly installing a multi-screen setup. "I'm the CEO of the Lu Group. I can work from the moon if I want to. And currently, my 'moon' is sitting in this chair. Besides, Shijun gave me his blessing. He thinks I'm the only thing keeping you from turning into a block of ice."
Before Wanwan could retort, the doors burst open. Her five brothers walked in, looking like they had spent the night in a war zone. Ye Mo, the eldest, held a stack of confession documents. They stopped dead, seeing Zhentian's "office" being installed in their father's sacred study and their sister being practically cradled by the man they hated most.
"Lu Zhentian!" Ye Yan roared, his bruised knuckles tightening. "What is this? Are you trying to annex our house along with our sister?"
"I'm stabilizing the environment," Zhentian said, not moving his hands from Wanwan's shoulders. He looked at them with a look of cold, superior calm. "While you were all downstairs venting your feelings on a traitor, your sister has secured the Ye Group's ports, blocked a hostile takeover from the Hans, and tracked the Shadow Syndicate's retreat to the border. She is exhausted. If any of you raise your voice again and disturb her, I'll have you removed from your own property."
The brothers fell silent. They looked at Wanwan, noticing for the first time the slight tremor in her hands and the paleness of her lips. The guilt that hit them was visible. They were supposed to be the protectors, yet the "Country Girl" they had pitied was the only one who had kept the empire from crumbling while they were blinded by emotion.
"Wanwan..." Ye Mo stepped forward, his voice thick with regret. "We didn't know. We... we've been useless."
Wanwan stood up, Zhentian's coat sliding off her shoulders as she did. She looked at her brothers, her gaze as sharp as a surgical blade. "The time for regret ended at midnight. Aurora was a symptom; the disease is the people who sent her. I've identified three board members who were on the Wei Syndicate's payroll. Mo, I want them liquidated by noon. Jun, I need a full medical audit of every servant in this house. Feng, the firewall stays at Level 5."
She turned to look at the holographic map. "The Phoenix doesn't just return to the nest to rest. It returns to burn away the rot. From today, the Ye family is no longer a target. We are the hunters."
The brothers straightened their backs, a new spark of respect—and fear—igniting in their eyes. They bowed their heads instinctively to their younger sister. "Yes, Director," they murmured in unison.
As they filed out to execute her orders, Zhentian stepped closer to her, his heat wrapping around her like a physical shield. He reached out and caught her chin, forcing her to look into his burning golden eyes. "Very impressive, Director Ye," he whispered, his voice a dangerous, lovesick purr. "But you forgot one thing in your orders."
"What?" Wanwan asked, her pulse betraying her by quickening.
"You forgot to order me to kiss you," Zhentian said, his thumb brushing over her lower lip. "But that's fine. I'm a very proactive fiancé. I don't need a formal directive to take what's mine."
Before she could pull away, he leaned down, his lips ghosting over hers, the sheer heat of him making her knees weak. The "Lethal God" had reclaimed her throne, but as she looked into the eyes of the "Asura" beside her, she realized that the hardest battle wouldn't be against the Shadow Syndicate—it would be against the man who was currently making her frozen heart beat for the very first time.